Conference presentations

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12143/6813

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 766
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    2013 Biodiversity Planning Forum Programme
    (SANBI, 2013-05-07)
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    The 2014 North West Biodiversity Sector Plan
    (SANBI, 2015-06-26) Schaller, Ray; Desmet, Phillip
    The North West is currently developing a Biodiversity Sector Plan (BSP 2014). Since developing a Biodiversity Assessment in 2009, the Province has undertaken a Biodiversity Inventory Project for the following taxon groups: plants, mammals and birds. A 2010 provincial land cover dataset and a 2013 national land cover dataset have also been acquired. The provincial vegetation map has been aligned to the geology and land facet maps and we are also looking at enhancing the NFEPA products with the Habitat Integrity/River Health data collected by Department of Water 43 Affairs. Today we would like to present some maps and accompanying data to generate discussion among the workshop participants about what could be done to enhance our final biodiversity sector plan.
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    The 2015 North West Biodiversity Sector Plan
    (SANBI, 2016-06-08) Schaller, Ray; Desmet, Phillip
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    The 2017 Western Cape Biodiversity Spatial Plan and Implementation Strategy
    (2017-06-21) Pence, Genevieve
    The vision of the Western Cape Biodiversity Spatial Plan is that biodiversity and ecological infrastructure are highly valued as assets, integrated into all planning spheres, and managed in a sustainable way so as to ensure the persistence of healthy, functioning and representative ecosystems and associated services which benefit all. To this end, CapeNature and the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning are collaborating on an implementation strategy in support of the province’s new Biodiversity Spatial Plan (BSP) Map and Handbook. The BSP Implementation Strategy focuses on key interventions within 5 foundational themes: (1) Awareness and Support; (2) the Enabling Environment; (3) Planning and Decision-Making; (4) Compliance and Enforcement; and (5) Monitoring and Evaluation. This presentation will provide an overview of the suite of BSP-related products now available and highlight key aspects of the implementation strategy, such as: a launch event and media campaign, enhanced legal status, competency building engagements, positive planning messaging, a map verification protocol, improved forward planning and decision-making tracking systems, and a specific GEF-funded project to ‘combat illegal land clearing’.
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    2nd Foundational Research Symposium
    (2021-11-16) Steyn, H.M.
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    Accessing biodiversity data
    (SANBI, 2015-06-26)
    Biodiversity information plays an important role in support of improved environmental decision-making. Therefore, biodiversity information should be represented in a relevant and informative manner, displaying the most important aspects of biodiversity information such as metadata and taxonomic information. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) developed a solution of publishing primary occurrence biodiversity information and thus making the data freely available to the public. The South African Biodiversity Information Facility (SABIF) managed by SANBI, a GBIF country node, mobilises primary biodiversity information making it freely available to the public. This primary biodiversity information informs policy makers, managers and researchers, contributing to South Africa’s sustainable development. The presentation will focus on the primary biodiversity data published through SANBI as well as highlight the infrastructure used in publishing these data. It will also focus on South African primary biodiversity data that is accessible through the GBIF portal. This presentation will also look at the road ahead.
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    Advancing coastal cross-realm integration for planning and assessment
    (NMU; Stellenbosch University; SANBI; DEA; Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; CSIR, 2018-06-20) Harris, Linda; Bessinger, Mariel; Holness, Stephen; Kirkman, Stephen; Livingstone, Tamsyn; Amanda, Lombard; Luck-Vogel, Melanie; van Niekerk, Lara
    The coast is one of South Africa’s most valuable national assets but has been poorly included in biodiversity plans because the realm has been split into its “land” and “sea” components. Even if planners intended to include the coast meaningfully, this has been impossible because the terrestrial and marine ecosystem type maps don’t align along the shore. Thus, a key step in progressing cross-realm integration for both planning and assessment is to generate a fine-scale coastal ecosystem-type map that is seamless among realms. We explicitly avoided controversial boundaries, rather choosing the most stable boundaries available that divide the ecotone into ecologically meaningful zones. We defined and mapped (at <1:3000) the “seashore” as the land-sea interface between the dune scrub/thicket break and the back of the surf zone. The seashore is divided at the dune base into a landward “backshore” (which replaces the seashore vegetation type) and seaward “shore”. Given the dynamic nature of the coast, temporal aspects were included in the boundary delineation and ecosystem type classification, where appropriate. The estuary delineation from the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 was also embedded in the map. South Africa is now the first country with a wall-to-wall ecosystem type map for its territory and Exclusive Economic Zone.
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    Advancing the data-science-policy value chain through SANBI's regional engagement strategy
    (2018-06-21)
    The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) has previously coordinated several conservation projects in other African countries linked to data mobilisation and biodiversity assessments, but these have been largely disconnected and risk undermining long-term impact. Currently, SANBI is conducting three major projects across the continent: the African Biodiversity Challenge (Ghana, Malawi, Namibia and Rwanda), Mapping Biodiversity Priorities (Botswana, Ethiopia and Malawi), and a Biodiversity Assessment for Spatial Prioritisation in Africa (BASPA) (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya and Mozambique). These projects span components relating to the data-science-policy value chain and provide opportunity for strategic coordination and synergy to create a critical mass of capacity in partner institutions. Such strategic coordination also extends to collaborating with other programmes of work operating on the continent (such as those being conducted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and United Nations – World Conservation Monitoring Centre). The ultimate goal is to create a continental community of practice through a network of strong science-policy hubs that can better cooperate in regional decision-making and global reporting through vehicles such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
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    Advancing the data-science-policy value chain through SANBI’s regional engagement strategy
    (2019-01) Child, Matthew; Parker-Allie, Fatima; Manuel, Jeffrey; Driver, Amanda; Raimondo, Domitilla
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    The African Biodiversity Challenge: an incentive-driven approach to mobilising biodiversity data
    (2017-06-23)
    Primary biodiversity data are essential to sustainable development in Africa. However, policy-makers will only incorporate such data if they are 1) accessible, 2) fit for use, and 3) relevant to national development agendas. Enabling these conditions necessitates building functional biodiversity informatics networks comprised of data holders, data managers and end users. Currently, only 3.7% of the records freely accessible on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) are from Africa, of which 49% have been published through African organisations and South Africa contributes 97% of the total. There is thus a critical need to capacitate African countries to mobilise biodiversity data. Simultaneously, as philanthropic funding is limited and volatile, national institutional demand for mobilised data, and willingness to support networks engaged with this work, must be cultivated to sustain the momentum generating and mainstreaming biodiversity information. Here we discuss a unique project methodology, which falls within the GBIF Africa and SANBI regional strategy scope of work, which uses a competition format to incentivise self-organisation of biodiversity informatics networks; complements alternative funding models; and incentivises the mobilisation of policy-relevant data. We discuss the incentives identified for each stakeholder group and present the results from the initial phase of the project.
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    Alien plant survey of the Haenertsburg village, Limpopo province, South Africa
    (2019-08-21) Mosohobane, Molesang Claude
    It is generally accepted that urbanisation is changing the composition of species mostly in urban areas and the surrounding areas. The recently published South African National Status report on biological invasion has shown that there is dearth of knowledge regarding the status of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in many parts of the country. Regrettably, little is known about the status of alien plant species in critically threatened vegetation, Woodbush Granite Grassland. I investigated the status of alien plant species in WGG. A total of 136 species were identified, belonging to 46 botanical families. The predominant families were Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Rosaceae. As far as plant invasions are concerned, these findings also point at the fact that the Woodbush Granite Grassland is facing a new threat, following habitat destruction in the area, as it may decrease the remaining Woodbush Granite Grassland size. Included in our list are alien species that need urgent eradication.